WHEAT GROWING

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume VIII, Issue 1355, 10 July 1886, Page 2

WHEAT GROWING

Those who propose to grow wheat will shortly be sowing. It is a remarkable fact that New Zealand wheat is now selling for a better price in this colony than in London. From the South we hear that an increased area is likely to be "laid down in grain crop this year. Neither should this be a matter for surprise. The estimated yield of wheat last harvest was 4,242,000 bushels. The usual allowance for home consumption in the colonies is 5£ bushels per head of population, and in New Zealand two bushels of seed per acre for the coming crop. The population is, in round numbers, 600,000. The wheat

required for food in 1886 would be 3,300,000 bushels. Add to this, the seed for the same area as last year at two bushels per acre on 173,000 acrea, gives a total of 3,G±6,000 bushels, leaving a balance available for export of less than 600,000 bushels ; to which there is to be a added the amount of wheat held over from the previous year, an item which is not now given in the Registrar's returns. !fe3ing that in ISBS no less than 1,339,000 bushels, and in 1884 2,706,000 bushels of wheat were exported from New Zealand, the sudden falling off >n the production might fairly be expected to ennauce prices, as has actually happened. N< w Zealand wheat has a special value for mixing with certain Australian and foreign wheats, but unksa a much larger production is available next year New Zealand wheat cannot possibly figure largely in the world's markets.